KP Assembly witnesses pandemonium over PPP leader’s arrest

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly witnessed pandemonium on Monday over the issue of arrest of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Syed Khurshid Shah as his party’s lawmaker Nighat Orakzai exchanged hot words with the treasury members.

The woman MPA, on a point of order, raised the issue of former opposition leader Khurshid Shah’s arrest and his maltreatment at the hands of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

She condemned the arrest and said PPP leaders and workers can’t be cowed down through imprisonment, threats and victimisation as the party leaders have rendered matchless sacrifices in the history of Pakistan.

The MPA said the PPP founding chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto sacrificed their lives for the cause of democracy.

Nighat Orakzai said the “selected” rulers had made life miserable for the masses.

“Was there any justification for the NAB chairman to remain in office after his video scandal?” she asked.

She questioned why the country was on the verge of economic collapse and oil, gas and daily use commodities’ prices were skyrocketing when ‘thieves’ were in jail and the “selected honest” were in power.

The word “selected” infuriated the treasury benches leading to shouting and exchange of hot words between Nighat Orakzai and the PTI members.

In his reply, Law Minister Sultan Muhammad Khan said the opposition lawmakers had the right to express their viewpoint, but they should not use objectionable words.

“Nobody including the prime minister, chief minister or ministers were selected. They were elected through the vote and the word selected should be avoided once and for all,” he said.

The minister said cases against the opposition leaders were not framed by the PTI government. He said the NAB was an independent body and the opposition should face NAB cases with courage.

Earlier, Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani warned of proroguing the session if the opposition did not come to a discussion on the agenda points.

Soon after recitation from the holy Quran, Nighat Orakzai asked for skipping the question-hour in consensus with the opposition so that important points on the agenda could be discussed.

However, opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani and Sardar Hussain Babak of the Awami National Party (ANP) insisted on the continuation of the question-hour.

The speaker pointed out that only two points of the opposition’s 15-point agenda could be discussed until then and this was the reason the opposition should consider skipping the question-hour.

The speaker announced lapse of the opposition members’ questions one by one when they refused to raise their questions accusing him of partiality.

He had to adjourn the session for 10 minutes when the joint opposition encircled the dais and shouted slogans.

Later, the session resumed and the Succession (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the KP Legal Aid Bill, 2019 and KP Tourism Bill, 2019 were introduced. Then the House was opened for discussion on price hike.

Akram Durrani, Sardar Hussain Babak and Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) took the government to task for unprecedented price-hike. They said the people were crying due to skyrocketing prices of daily use commodities, businessmen were winding up businesses, factories were being closed down and workers had been rendered jobless.

“What is the justification for an economic breakdown when ‘thieves’ are behind bars and pious and honest are imposed on the country?” remarked one of the speakers.

They said petroleum prices were from Rs60 to Rs70 and dollar-rupee parity was 106 when ‘thieves’ were in power, but now dollar rate is Rs156 and oil prices have gone to Rs118, and sugar price has reached Rs80 from Rs52 during Nawaz Sharif’s rule. They said prices of ghee, flour, pulses and other food and non-food items have gone out of ordinary people’s reach, and up to 300 percent hike has been recorded in medicines prices but the rulers had no answer except repeating the allegation that the rulers in the past were corrupt.

The opposition strongly reacted to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement that time was not ripe for releasing the arrears of net hydel profit to KP, and said it was a violation of the constitution.

Food Minister Qalandar Khan Lodhi in his reply said that in the past the government became poor and a few individuals got rich which led the country towards bankruptcy.

He admitted that there is a price-hike nowadays, but added that “things will get normal with time.”